Improvement in windmills



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES BARTON, OF PERU,1LLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN WINDMILLS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 13,663, dated August 2, 1864.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES BARTON, of Peru, in the county ot' La Salle and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Windmills; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,making part ofthis specification, in which- Figure I is a horizontal section ot' a Wind mill illustrating my invention.. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

The chief object of this invention is to cause the current of air to exert a regular and unvarying pressure upon the wheel ot the wind mill, and thus insure the more effectual operation of the grinding apparatus. v

Another object is to provide novel and simple means for arresting the motion of the wheel, all as will be hereinafterl fully eX- plained.

In older that others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains may be enabled to fully understand and use the same, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

In the accompanying drawings, A may represent the sails or Wings of a windwheel, the turning of which operates the grinding apparatus in customary manner. This wheel is surrounded by a circular series ot defiectors, B, which are so arranged that a constant vortex is created and maintained within theinclosure, and the air at the same time prevented from too violent action upon the wheel. The sails A are pivoted, respectively, upon arms c, which project horizontally from the main vertical shaft Af, so that the wheel turns in a horizontal plane, thevsame being acted on by the current which passes between the detlectors B in the manner indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1. Each wing A is so attached to its arm a that the greater portion of its area is situated below the arm a. The effect of this method of hanging the sails is to cause the force or pressure of the air against the wheel to be of uniform unvarying degree, inasmuch as when the current of air is feeble or light the attraction of gravitation will be sufficient to counterbalance the increased force applied to the sail A below the point at which it is pivoted upon the arm a, and thus adapt the sail to deviate but very little from avertical plane, which constitutes its normal position; but when the force of the current becomes stronger the sail will be caused to assume such'position outof the vertical plane that the decrease in the entire area thereof which is subjected to the pressure of the current will be commensurate with the increase in the strength ofthe latter. To the top each sail A, I attach a lever, C, and suspend from the latter a rope or chain, D, by means of a small ring, c. When they wheel is being moved around by the wind, this cord may be looped over a hook, c', at the lower end of the sail, as clearly indicated in Fig. 2, but when it is desired to arrest the turning of the wheel, this may be readily done by attaching a weight to one or more of the respective ropes, D, which weight serves to draw the sail to a horizontal position, as shown by the red lines in Fig. 2, and thus relieve the same of the pressure ofthe Wind. This eX- pedient for stopping the wind-wheel is of a most simple and available character, and it is manifest that it will be uufailing in producing the desired result.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Witnesses (I1-IAS. L. DU Bots, Giras. D. SMrTn. 

